This is an ex-blog

For over ten years, this blog sang the praise of girls, singing in French. Plus the occassional guy, singing in French. Mostly.

It ends today. French music is alive and kicking, there’s not shortage of soft sighing girls, and thank heaven for them.
Merci for all the comments, guest-posts, tips and whatnot over the years. Thanks to Steve, Sky, FransS, David, Mark and Maks for keeping this blog up and running for so long.

If you want to keep up to date on French music, follow my Spotify playlist HERE, or check Steve’s blog regularly.

Music is forever. I’d like it very much if you would post your favourite track(s) of the past ten years of FillesSourires in the comments.

Oh no! First Bowie, then this 😉 FS was such a great and enthusiastic resource, if Guuzbourg said ‘You should listen to this’ then you pretty much had to. Elodie Fregé, that dodgy Carla Bruni cover of Absolute Beginners (!), Fôret, Keren Ann, so many great artists I now love because of this blog. Merci et adieu! xx

Mark Sullivan’s choice. The last six years have produced some of the world’s best popular music sung in French. All these songs have been written or recorded between 2009 and 2015. Five French, five Canadians. Without Filles Sourires, there would be little in English about them. FS has filled a huge gap, and long may it stay on the web to be read.

SYLVIE VARTAN
‘Signé Sagan’ at the Paris Olympia, 2009 – Only Sylvie could sing a song about her contemporary the ‘enfant terrible’ writer Françoise Sagan. Perfection from one of France’s longest-serving stars. Will Béatrice Martin look like this at 65?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Qp_r5tJdc

Les Canadiennes:

COEUR DE PIRATE
To show six years of success, here is first the suddenly-discovered Béatrice Martin recording a solo version of ‘C’était salement romantique’ on her first visit to France, January 2009 – all the skills are there from the start.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpORlgJS9YI
And compare with her latest masterpiece, ‘Crier tout bas’, France 2 TV, 2015 – the dance movement skills taught to her by the former ballerina Wynn Holmes has created her new style on stage.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLfbX5AJDZ4

LISA LEBLANC (she’s not from Québec, but Acadie in New Brunswick)
Lisa’s modern classic, ‘Lignes d’Hydro’, referencing the power lines of Hydro-Québec, sadly little filmed. The best live performance we have at Spa. Belgium in 2012.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maz6gftZUvM
And a close-up film of her left hand setting the chords right through the song – a brilliant demonstration of her skillhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zQjdgTqVT8

ADIEU FRANCOISE
And what we didn’t know until 2015, when she said she will record no more tracks, is that Françoise Hardy’s very last song is the adieu song on her 2012 Album ‘L’amour fou’ – ‘Rendez-vous dans une autre vie’, live in the studio.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa6nBOgwFE0

And see my presentation of the song, with slides of Françoise and her ‘heritières’, the singers that carry on her tradition today. No surprise who they are. The lyrics and a translation are included here below the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtjxOGfi3Ho

What a great way to finish the career that inspired Filles Sourires – Françoise is the greatest Fille of all.

Aw, shucks. Thanks for a great 10+ years. I forget when I started reading but have discovered so much good music thanks to you and this blog. Some favorite tracks – Helsinki – Melanie Pain, Etrange – Dobacaracol, Pas fragile – Buridane. Thanks again!

Thank you for everything! You are closing and so all my fears come true! I wanna thank you especially for discovering Francoiz Breut. Without your recommendations over the last years my music life would be very, very different.
Instead of tears and as goodbye i wanna post the link of Breut’s newest concert available via Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWDot0cp2mM
Enjoy it!

I think I said this before, but thanks for not only kindling my love for all things French, especially when sung in a soft, slight accent (or maybe even after gargling with Jack D’s and a razor blade – see Marianne Dissard for example); for introducing me to a host of unheard artists who are now firm favourites and allowing me to share my prejudices here.

I can’t remember how I discovered this blog (was it via elbo.ws – the legendary music blog aggregator?), but it introduced me to some magnificent bands and singers – Zaz, Coeur de pirate, La femme (they weren’t so famous back then), Claire Denamur, Barbara Lune, Pendentif, Le A and of course Lescop. I think his “La Foret” was the best thing I’ve found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njpw2PVb1c0

Oh man! I came here first after falling in love with Françoise Hardy and looking for more; while I didn’t find all of my french pop from you, I did find *most* of it through this blog and I’ll dearly miss it. Thanks so much for turning me on to Françoise Breut, Coeur de pirate, Berry, Cecile Hercule, Emily Loizeau, Stéphanie Lapointe, Pendentif, Mademoiselle Nineteen, Alka, Marie Warnant, Vanessa Paradis, Babet, Éléphant, Exotica, Hôtel Morphée, Lisa Portelli, Pony, The Spinshots, and no doubt many more, all of which I now treasure — merci!

Don t know if its a definitive favorite track or artist from your blog since there has been many good ones but the discovery of Marie Pierre arthur for me is just a prime example of what kind of musicdiscoveries this blog has unerarthed for me. No other musicmagazine or blog in the western hempisphere i believe would have opened up my ears to such pearls. And for that,merci !https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqw9u3eG5jw